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WASHINGTON, January 26, 2016 - The National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (NCPPA) announced that Jack Groppel, Ph.D., co-founder of the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, will continue to serve as the NCPPA national spokesperson for the CEO Pledge for Physical Activity. The CEO Pledge is a national campaign aimed at encouraging every CEO to recognize physical activity as an important driver of employee health and business performance. Dr. Groppel first signed on as the spokesperson back in 2013 and has remained in that position. His most recent appearance as the national spokesperson took place at the September 2015 launch of Step It Up! The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities, where he spoke passionately about the importance of increasing walking and physical activity at the worksite.

"I'm honored to continue as the spokesperson for an organization that shares the same commitment... Read More

Last week, President Obama signed S. 1177, the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and replaces the long overdue No Child Left Behind law. The bill passed the Senate and House with overwhelming bipartisan support and is a big win for physical education.

First, the law designates physical education as a part of the well-rounded curriculum (replacing core subjects), which now makes physical education eligible for Title I funding - the largest pot of federal funding for schools.

Second, Title IV contains a new block grant program, under which physical education programs will have access to significant funding. While this means the PEP program now officially goes away, this is not surprising as we always knew that in the end, an ESEA reauthorization would consolidate physical education money somehow and physical education maintains a strong presence of eligibility through the block grant.

Last Friday President Obama signed into law the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), or the transportation reauthorization bill. Funding for policies that provide access to sidewalks, bike paths, and Safe Routes to School was ultimately preserved – and even got a slight increase – in this five year bill. The programs now reside under the “STP Setaside” (formerly known as the Transportation Alternatives Program), and there were even some policy improvements to the programs as well.

Given that at the beginning of this year, the House was determined to completely eliminate all of these important programs that help keep our communities active, being able not only to preserve but to get a slight bump in funding and modest changes is quite the amazing victory.

Importantly, the five year bill and essentially programmatic status quo means that there will be seamless continuity for state and local partners for the next five years as they continue to plan... Read More